Velocity Sailing

TVS has a pretty huge announcement coming up Monday (or next week at least).  If you check out Sailing Anarchy‘s front page, you’ll be the first to know.  I can barely contain my excitement, which is why I’m up at 1:21AM writing this because I can’t sleep!

In the meantime, if you’re wondering whether or not Spring Fever is going to happen, then wonder no longer!  Mr. Ernie confirms that the light is green for 2009 as the Corps has promised that the water level will continue to rise on Hartwell.  The Nacra 20′s have already made a class on the first day of pre-registration!  Fantastic!

Lets get this race going!

Team Velocity Sailing is a group of young, enthusiastic beach catamaran sailors with humble roots, but grandiose plans.  Defying the skeptics from the start, its woefully inexperienced, underprepared founders Trey and Tad competed and finished their first Tybee 500 while still in college.

They say life is a learning experience, and Team Velocity has learned as it has grown.  We’ve competed in national and international events, growing from a single boat held together by college student intuition – to a four boat “syndicate” whose members can proudly boast of their many accomplishments on the water.  At its core, Team Velocity is a group of young individuals who thrive on spreading the excitement and thrill of multihull racing to as many people as possible.

We all remember the days of the Worrell 1000 – where teams lined up to take a crack at being the hardest, fastest bastards on two hulls.  We remember when legends from the monohull world, from the America’s Cup world, from Europe, Australia, and New Zealand  – would line up bow-to-bow against some of the best (and some of the worst) in North America to shove off through the breakers into the Atlantic every morning.  We want to bring that back – we believe in this race and the life experiences that it gives everyone who participates in it.

The members of Team Velocity Sailing have put together an outsourced logistics program for the 2009 Tybee 500.  Anyone who has tried to compete in a race like this knows that the preparations begin months in advance, and that getting to the beach is half the battle.  Even outside of preparing boats, hardware, and sailors, the logistical planning that goes into this race is often the one hurdle that intimidates most people out of competing in this epic event.

If you are a cat sailor and you’re on the fence about competing, give TVS a shout about handling your logistics.  We can arrange your hotels, reserve your ground crew, arrange meals, and handle race paperwork on your behalf.

So get in touch with us,  and lets make it happen.

Well, at least she’s sitting in the waiting room, waiting for her makeover to start.  On Sunday, Bailey came up and helped me wheel the venerable Nacra 20 to the backyard and started the work on giving her a bottom job.  Upon inspection of the bottom, lots of scratches and gelcoat blisters are undoubtedly slowing us down.

So over the next couple weeks, I’ll be following the expert advice of Jake Kohl and doing a complete bottom job on the N20 short of actually spraying the gelcoat myself. (I’ll take it to the local yard to get that done)

Below are some pics of the damage so far.

Trey and Bailey managed to score a 2nd place in a tough Nacra 20 fleet down in Islamorada. Bailey reported that while they had good speed and handling in the heavy air, they suffered in the lighter air on Sunday. Kirk Newkirk and Glen Holmes managed to eek out the boys for the win overall.

Another great thing was that the N20 was the biggest class at Tradewinds with a grand total of 12 boats! This is great for the class and hopefully points towards a bright future despite the turmoil that the aluminum mast will inject (if any).  Full story including more pictures are here.

Trey and Bailey at Tradewinds. Photo courtesy catsailor.com, photo by Beth Langfeld.

Just got off the phone with Bailey,

Him and Trey are sailing strong and sitting in 1st place in the Nacra 20 fleet at Tradewinds in Islamorada Florida. He reports that the RC got 4 races of 3 laps each – Triangle/Sausage/Sausage. For those of you not into the regatta lingo, thats one lap around the buoys that when you connect them together, make a triangle, and then two laps around just the windward and leeward marks. It looks like a sausage. I promise.

A bit of drama on the water apparently, Mike Hill had a collision with a Hobie Wave in which the wave prevailed. Apparently the bow damage on Mike’s N20 was worse than mine last year. Hey Mike man, I know how you feel, it sucks. You’ll get her patched up in no time!

Tomorrow’s forcast for Islamorada is for decreasing winds throughout the day as the direction shifts from the NE to the SE steadily through the day.

Good luck Team Velocity!

Mr. Ernie has sent out an email to all competitors that confirms that Spring Fever is indeed going to happen this year. The reason why it was in doubt was due to the fact that Lake Hartwell is, at this time, down almost 20 feet from full pool – making launching ramps non-operable. For the beachcats, this isn’t a big deal, but for the regatta chase vehicles, this could be a problem.

Mr. Ernie says that with the increased rains, and the new Corp of Engineers agreement to limit the outflow from the dam, the level should rise sufficiently to allow the ramps to be used!

Trey and Bailey will be teaming up this weekend in the Florida Keys for the classic midwinter Tradewinds regatta. This marks the 4th year in a row that a Team Velocity presence was made at Tradewinds. Last year was pretty brutal for me, and it hurts to be unable to attend this year – but I will have my redemption next year.

Rick White mentioned today on catsailor.com that next year, Tradewinds would go to a three-day format as Spring Fever. This makes justifying the 13 hour drive a lot more palatable since both years I have attended the regatta, we had one day of “blow out” wind.

Team Velocity is pleased to announce that the Accelerated Chaos Nacra 20 has been purchased by Brett Robinson and will make the 4th Velocity team on the line at the 2009 Tybee 500.  TVS 4 was entered with Brett’s Tiger F-18, however this most recent development increases the benefits of having a fleet with all the same parts – making logistics much easier for our ground crew.  This is great news also since TVS 2 (Tad and Bailey) will have another N20 at Lake Lanier so two-boat testing, training and tuning will be possible.

We’re all pretty excited about the possibilities this year for Team Velocity Sailing.